This invention relates to an ignition device for an internal combustion engine and more particularly to an improved coil and mounting arrangement for such engines.
It has been acknowledged that there are certain advantages in supplying small individual coils mounted adjacent each spark plug of the internal combustion engine for firing that respective spark plug. Although such arrangements have some advantages, the placement of coils in proximity to spark plugs can present certain design problems. This is particularly true in conjunction with compact engine configurations such as are typical in outboard motors. That is, in connection with an outboard motor there is considerable importance in simplicity and compactness of design and the previously proposed coil mounting arrangements where coils are mounted adjacent the individual spark plugs have not been satisfactory for application to outboard motors.
It is, therefore, a principal object to this invention to provide an improved, compact, coil, spark plug arrangement for an internal combustion engine.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an improved mounting arrangement for an individual coil for the spark plug of an internal combustion engine.
In many forms of coil mounting arrangements wherein the coil is mounted adjacent the spark plug of an internal combustion engine, the coil may be mounted directly on the spark plug. The previously proposed constructions for this purpose have had several disadvantages. In the first instance, the coils have tended to extend above the spark plug and thus increase significantly the height requirements of the engine to clear the spark plug and mounted coil. In addition, the mounting of the spark coil on the spark plug can put undue stress on the spark plug and may, in some instances, cause premature failure of the spark plug.
It is, therefore, a still further object of this invention to provide an improved compact mounting arrangement for the coil of an individual spark plug for an internal combustion engine.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a mounting arrangement for a positioning a coil adjacent a spark plug and wherein the spark plug need not carry the full weight of the coil.